Part 2 of Reconstruction of Story 3 presents the works of American experimental filmmaker David Gatten and experimental filmmaker and artist Kevin Jerome Everson who have both, in their respective ways, continued to consistently conduct experiments that incarnate the abstract body of film.

The first line in The Extravagant Shadows (2012), the first digital feature by David Gatten who had made only 16mm films, is “The idea is one of contingency. Everybody must feel that something has been missed, because electing one course of life precludes any other”. When a color is painted over the surface of a frame showing the image of books in a study, the image of the book disappears and a text quote gradually appears and then evaporates much like vapor. As such, Gatten’s films make one realize that the time you gaze upon subjects which appear and disappear is a time of waiting and discovery.

Part 2 of Reconstruction of Story 3 presents his recent films after his series of exploring the study of William Byrd II which he started in 1996 and The Great Art of Knowing (2004) which won him international acclaim. The compass of his films points in two directions. One engages the shape of letters, which are the visual presentation of language where light, shadow, lines and colors - the most fundamental elements that compose the structure of the outside world - form the basis of the human psyche. The other leans toward poetic rhythm based on nature, his young daughter, or his affection for his friends, which are the most important constituents of Gatten’s personal life. These two leave a lingering trace of moments that disappear like vapor and offer the audience time for lucid contemplation.

Kevin Jerome Everson captures the essential form of modern humans in a capitalist society during moments of labor. His film does not choose to locate stories that can be perceived as corresponding to certain themes in the lives of African-American laborers that reflect a certain era and environment. Rather than constructing realistic stories through actual episodes of the workplace, he gives body to the concentration of power within the behavior of laborers who have been thrown in. His works depart from the stereotypical cause and effect relationship of documentaries, even in films like Company Line (2009) and The Island of St. Matthews (2013) which combine the method of interviewing residents of a certain local area telling their stories. As in Rams 23 VS Blue Bears 21 (2017) and Workers Leaving the Job Site (2013), which pay homage to the early films produced by the Lumiere brothers, his movies document the genuine existential reality of laborers. Therefore, he does not reproduce the workplace of laborers with a sense of dramatic reality but instead paradoxically arouses our interest in historicity through the abstract pattern that is obtained when the focus is on the moment of existence void of explanation. We, the workers, are able to see ourselves in his shorts and features, including Park Lanes (2015) which observes over 8 hours in real time the site where bowling equipment is produced.

MasterClass sessions with David Gatten and Kevin Jerome Everson respectively who will be visiting Korea will present the opportunity to learn about the driving force, philosophy and methodology that constitute their work.